


when all the rest is gone

by walrusgrendel



Category: Jade Empire
Genre: Angst, Closed Fist Ending, Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 05:43:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14513775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walrusgrendel/pseuds/walrusgrendel
Summary: Post Closed Fist ending but the Spirit Monk isn't alone.





	when all the rest is gone

The dead haunt where they fall.

It seemed a foolish thing for Ming to forget, but in the wild rush of taking the throne those who had previously sat there were the furthest thing from his mind. It had begun as a quiet whisper as he heard of a minister of one of the smaller towns in the Golden Delta questioning the exact nature of how he had taken the Jade Empire.

_You know the way to make this vanish_.

Ming darts up from his seat and whirls around frantically but there is no one in the shadows beside the throne. He reminds himself.

Sun Hai is dead and cannot speak.

Ming gives the order. Lotus Assassins will take the minister in the night as well as anyone else who whispers about him. He wears dark blue robes in place of yellow but still feels a pull of disgust in his stomach even as he speaks.

  
***  


It is just the voices for the first few years. A comment to _remember the basics_ when he has to puzzle out the best way to end a rebellion before it can truly begin. A few words on how best to use the Lotus Assassins to root out dissenters in the shadows. It isn’t until the third year of his rule that he sees a figure out of the corner of his eye that makes him relieved that he has not entered the tomb which held the Water Dragon’s body in all these years.

  
***  


He had chosen, because he had been afraid.

Until that moment, Ming had tried to walk the high path- bringing charity and justice where he could and grieving when he couldn’t. That had changed when he had woken in the storm, after falling before the very throne he sat on now. All throughout the journey back to the Imperial Palace, he could not stop thinking about the sudden pain and terror as he had fallen. Of the spirits and demons that had awaited him at Dirge.

So when he had the chance to take the Water Dragon’s power for himself, to know he did not need to fear dying; not at his Master’s hand, or any other, he had taken it.

But he had lost everything else instead.

  
***  


The years stretch long before him but Ming is already tired by the thought. The Jade Empire has never been more prosperous and comfortable…as long as you didn’t ask the wrong questions of the wrong people.

By now the ghosts are solid enough that Ming can see them all the time he is on that throne. Once or twice, when he truly loses his temper with something, he will disperse one or both of them but they always return- stronger every time and more difficult to banish. Sometimes they are genuinely helpful. Li especially seems to have spent so much time acting like a teacher that it has become a part of him. Hai couches his advice in mocking comments, and biting derision but it is no less useful.

  
***  


Even after he has isolated himself even further, news still reaches him of a girl with the skill of one far older and a mission to defeat him. Even the little description the Assassins are able to glean gives him all he needs to identify this one threat. That night he digs out all the wine he can find and sits slumped against the throne. He does not need sleep but this inaction is as close as he can get.

“How can you do it?” He speaks aloud, but he knows that he is heard. It is as though he summons the man he wants to speak to just with this acknowledgment. “To look someone you love in the eyes, and strike them down? Someone who trusted you?”

_You have done it far more times than I _.__

____  
***  


He can feel it when the Water Dragon is killed. Feel a cold surge from his brain down through his spine and knows that the end is coming.

It has been ten years since he has seen Wild Flower and only she has reflected that time- no longer a child with a demon attached to her but a woman with a sword pointing straight at his heart.

He will not use any of the Water Dragon’s power he can still call his own. The basics were enough the last time he fought for his life in this throne room.

Only this time, he knows he will lose.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah yeah I know the ending says that Wild Flower is only given life in the open palm ending but if Bioware can ignore their own epilogues then so can I.  
> Spirit Monk in this was open palm all the way up until the Water Dragon choice and didn't romance anyone.


End file.
